Ice Cold
by Caitidid
Summary: A girl from Adam's past shows up, and the Ducks realize Adam isn't as fine as he pretends.


Ice Cold

Summery- A girl from Adam's ever privet life shows up at Eden Hall, leaving the Ducks confused. They soon come to realize that Adam is far from ok, but can they help him?

There is an OC, but no romance has been planned for, at least, not yet. Hints of Adam/Julie, but nothing overt at this time. This fic should be only about five chapters at the most.

Disclaimer- If you actually think I own them, you should have your head checked. I do, however, own Claire.

Chapter One

What's Going On?

Adam Banks, Julie Gaffney, and Jesse Hall walked out of fourth period English laughing. It was early December and all the ducks were back at Eden Hall for their sophomore year, and so far, things had been going fairly well.

That basically meant that practice was good, grades decent, teachers alright (mostly), and next to no run-ins with the Varsity; at least, not yet anyways.

Julie glanced up at Adam as she listened to him laugh; glad to see that Jesse's joke had brought a smile to his face. Julie had noticed, since getting back from summer vacation, that Adam didn't smile nearly as often anymore, and rarely laughed.

All of a sudden, the smiled died on his face, and was replaced with a look of shock and confusion, and something else Julie couldn't explain. She turned to see what Adam was looking at, and at first saw nothing unusual, just the normal bustle of students in the hallway headed to their next, and thankfully last, class of the week. Then, Julie noticed a young woman who appeared to be about their age, standing in the middle of the hallway, alone, and looking very confused, and slightly upset.

"Claire," was all Adam said, and his voice was so soft, Julie wasn't even sure she heard it correctly.

Adam started forward, not saying a word, eyes fixed on the young woman ahead.

"Adam, who…" Julie began, but was cut off when Jesse placed a hand on her arm and shook his head, signaling her to be quiet. They both turned back to watch the scene before them unfold.

Adam walked forward, saying nothing, and stopped right in front of the young woman, who's expression had cleared slightly when she saw him, but who's eyes were now filling with tears.

"I, I couldn't stand it any longer," she said shakily, "I just..I," she broke off, unable to finish.

Adam said nothing, just dropped his bag in the middle of the hallway and swept the girl up in his arms, his head resting atop hers, as she was significantly shorter than him, her arms snaking around his neck, pulling him closer as he whispered quietly to her as she began to cry, his eyes also filling with silent tears.

"Come on," said Jesse quietly, "we need to get to class."

"What about Adam?" asked Julie.

"Just leave them be, come on, or we'll be late."

With that they turned and walked away, Julie stealing a last glance over her shoulder as she tried to push away the unwanted feeling of jealousy that was welling up in her at the sight of Adam holding another girl in his arms.

Jesse and Julie arrived at class right before the bell.

"And where would Mr. Banks be?" their teacher asked, eyebrows raised.

The rest of the ducks, who were all in this class, were already seated, and looked expectantly at the two newcomers, waiting with the teacher for the answer to the whereabouts of the last duck.

"He had some business to attend to," was Jesse's cryptic answer in a, 'don't ask again,' kind of voice.

"And what business would that be?" asked the teacher, not taking the hint.

"Personal business," came Jesse's cold reply as he sat down next to Charlie, Julie taking the seat behind him.

The teacher raised her eyebrows once more, but realized she wasn't going to get an answer, and dropped it.

Julie watched as Charlie leaned over and whispered to Jesse, as the teacher began her lecture.

"What's up?"

All Jesse said was, "Claire," and Charlie nodded in understanding and leaned back in his chair, apparently content with the answer, leaving Julie only more confused than ever.

Adam didn't show up for practice either, leaving not only Julie, but also the rest of the team confused, and in Coach Orion case, mad.

"Where Banks?" he yelled out to the rest of the team as the warmed up on the ice, with Adam noticeably missing.

The ducks just lifted their heads and stared at him, some with confusion, others with blank stares, in Jesse's case a mix between annoyance and understanding, and Charlie didn't even bother to look up.

"Captain Duck," came Orion's voice once more, "where is Mr. Banks? He is your roommate after all. Mr. Hall, how about you, care to share anything, as you're the other inhabitant of that room."

Jesse's family had moved down to Atlanta right after the Junior Goodwill Games, as Mr. Hall had gotten an excellent job offer, which was why they had declined Jesse's scholarship the year before.

After spending two years dealing with the ever strange southern weather, and Mr. Hall's position had been firmly cemented in the company, he put in for a transfer back to Minnesota, arriving two weeks after the start of the new year, to the delight, and surprise, of the rest of the ducks.

Jesse had decided to stay at the school with the others ducks, both for convenience and enjoyment, and had immediately been roomed with Charlie and Adam, as they didn't have a third roommate like the others.

The school found out a little to late that this wasn't the ideal situation, for the rest of the school that is, but it was to late by then, and they hadn't caused that much damage (yet), but their teachers still had their eyes on the three of them, though it was mostly Charlie and Jesse that caused the problems, though Adam had been know to pull a few pranks himself.

But if anything was going on with the ducks, one of them was sure to know something.

The rest of the ducks stared at the two singled out in fascination. They always did enjoy a good show after all, and this one promised to great.

To their awe, and annoyance, Charlie swiveled his head towards Jesse as the two communicated without words, finally seeming to come to a decision. They both stood and walked over to Orion and began talking to him in low voices so as to prevent the others from hearing. The rest of the ducks sighed, so much for the show.

"So, where is Cake-eater anyways," said Goldberg, voicing the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Well, obviously those two know something," said Guy, jerking his head towards the two whispering ducks and the coach. "Anybody got any clue?"

"Well…" began Julie, and she told about the girl in the hallway, Adam's subsequent disappearance, and Jess and Charlie's stranger behavior.

"So, that's all you know?" said Ken curiously once Julie was done.

"What's she look like?" asked Fulton.

"Is she hot?" came Portman.

"Mmmm, about a head shorter then Adam, golden blond hair. She was to far away so I can't be positive, but I think her eyes were blue. She looked fairly pretty, but I really couldn't tell much. All I know is that her name is Claire, and obviously Adam, Charlie, and Jesse know her. What about you guys?" Julie motioned towards the original ducks, "ever heard of a girl named Claire?"

The rest of the ducks replied negative and began speculate about the relationship between the mysterious girl and the three ducks in question.

Julie noticed that Guy wasn't participating in the discussion, though she couldn't blame him, some of the theories were getting outrageous, but his look of concentration had her curious.

"Guy, do know something?" she asked, and immediately the hubbub died down and they all looked at Guy expectantly.

"Well, maybe," he said sheepishly. "What?" he asked at Connie's incredulous look, "I didn't think is was important before. In fact, I'd mostly forgotten about it until now."

"What?" came Julie's reply.

"Well, it was a couple of things. I think back, and I've heard her name mentioned three or four times since Adam joined the team five years ago. The first time was right after the Hawks vs. Ducks, the first year he joined, when he was shoved into the goal post. We all went to visit him in the hospital. There was a card on the bedside table that pretty much said something like, 'Ouch, that had to hurt. Got to love hockey. So you're on a first name bases with most of the docs and nurses by now right? Always knew you were an attention seeker. Love, Claire P.S. Oh yah, get well soon.' I wasn't really sure if it was a joke or not, and I didn't recognize the name, but we had just met him, and he went to a different school, so I assumed it was from a friend. Then, at the Goodwill Games, he was on the phone when I walked into the common room one night, right after Coach benched him. He wasn't saying much, just listening and making a noise every now and then. Then just said, 'Thanks, keep me updated. I'll, be back soon. Love you to Claire.' and hung up. I didn't hear her name again until right after we started Eden Hall. We were skating laps at practice and Adam and Charlie were in front of me. Charlie asked what Claire thought of Eden Hall, and he just laughed and said not to get him started, and by the way, she sends her regards. Those were the only times I heard her name."

"No, wait," said Guy suddenly. "Right after Jesse came, her name, it came up in passing. I was dropping one of Jess's boxes in the dorm and he asked how Claire was. Adam just grunted and Charlie just smiled and said 'touchy' mentioning Adam hadn't been sleeping well lately. But that's all I know or have heard, sorry."

The rest of the ducks just sat quietly on the ice, contemplating this new revelation.

"Well," began Ken, "she's obviously been around for awhile."

"Wonder why he never introduced her," said Goldberg.

"Oh ya, lets see. Claire these are the ducks, Ducks, this is my girlfriend Claire, who I've keep hidden from you for five years. No reason really, just didn't want to have to introduce you all and risk losing her because of the general mental instability of the team, that's all."

"Averman!" the rest of the team groaned and began to once more hash out the strange girl and why she was here.

Julie zoned out the conversation though. Averman had just voiced one of Julie's biggest fears about the new girl. That she could be, and at this point was most likely, Adam's girlfriend. It would explain a lot.

Adam was one of the best hockey players at the school, and one of the cutest. And to most peoples, including the ducks, knowledge, he was single too, which made him a highly prized catch in Eden Hall society. But Adam never once acknowledged this, keeping his friends mostly limited to the ducks, being casual acquaintances with a few others in school, and though he had had numerous offers from the girls at school, he had never once accepted, and, as far as Julie knew, hadn't been on a date since she met him.

She was now starting to rethink this assumption, and started wondering if maybe she just hadn't known about Adam's obviously secret love life. It wasn't really that hard, Julie realized.

Adam had always been very quite about his life. It wasn't hard to have a conversation with him at all, but it was rarely personal. He could get you to talk to him about anything that was going on in your life and he was always supportive and filled with stories and advice, but he almost never shared anything about his personal life.

Julie had picked up on this right after she met him, and understood fully. She was much the same, though she wasn't as conversational as Adam.

All in all, she supposed she really shouldn't be surprised that Adam had a girlfriend that nobody except his two best friends knew about, though it was a tad odd that he never told the rest of the ducks. But again, she couldn't blame him. The ducks were quite a group to get use to.

Julie was shaken out of her revere by Coach Orion's voice.

"Alright team, practice is canceled for today since our lead scorer has decided to skip out on us."

The team cheered at this announcement.

"Instead," boomed the coach's voice over the cheers, "you all will be showing up at six tomorrow for a four hour practice instead."

The cheers turned to moans.

"Have a good night, see you bright and early tomorrow," said Orion, and he walked off to his office.

The team pulled themselves off the ice still grumbling and moaning about the early morning practice they had been given, with a few audible curses and threats against Adam's life, though whom they came from was undistinguishable.

"Come on guys, now we have all of Friday night to goof off," came Charlie's voice from over the clamor. "How 'bout we head to the old pond for a game, and catch diner afterwards?"

The rest of the team agreed and they all headed into the locker room chatting about the upcoming scrimmage, tomorrows practice, schoolwork, weekend plans, and their missing lead scorer and his mysterious girl.

Julie felt her stomach clench again at the thought of the girl and though about the very strange day she was having, and her very strange feelings, with one though running through her mind, 'what's going on'?

AN- Alright, few things. First off, I love Jesse, and I was very disappointed that he wasn't in the third movie, so I brought him back. I chose Atlanta because that's where I am, so it worked. As for the southern weather, if you are use to four seasons, don't move down south. Two days after Christmas it was in the sixties, and I was out in short sleeves. Needless to say, a hockey fanatic like Jesse would hate the weather, and I made his parents agree with him. Time wise, Jesse's been gone about two years. Here's how I see it. They won the pee-wees in 5th grade, went to the Junior Goodwill Games in 7th, and Jesse moved right after they got back. Everyone was separated in 8th, and came to Eden Hall as freshmen. I know technically these ages are off, but since I'm only borrowing them, I'm allowed some artist license, right? Finally, I hope you like the chapter name. It's the title of the song I was listening to while writing this. It's an instrumental piece by this group called Barrage. If you ever have a chance, listen to it, it my favorite piece by them. Also, the name of the story will be explained in the next chapter. Any reviews would be welcome, especially constructive criticism. Thank you!

7


End file.
